This service is designed to allow HPFF users to alert the staff about inappropriate reviews.

Review:

Girldetective85 says:This is easily one of the best pieces I've come across on the site, very, very well written. The ending was amazing. Poor Snape! You write with a sympathy that's really unusual to see especially regarding characters like Snape and Narcissa, people that readers don't always identify with right away. I really enjoyed reading about the story from Narcissa's eyes; it strikes me that she was a very flat character in the books (rich, beautiful, snobby) and it was very gratifying to see you take her character and develop it so skillfully. She really became 3D for me in this piece because of her dying marriage, her rocky relations with Draco, and her fervent fear of being alone. Really great job on her characterization. One of my favorite passages, of course, was the scene in which Dumbledore was explaining to Snape that a life without love and happiness isn't really a life at all. That translation was just lovely - I have never heard of Catullus's poems, so this has just encouraged me to look them up. It's very ironic to me that just as a faint glimmer of happiness arose in Snape's life, it was the very thing that was unforgivable because he had promised himself to Lily forever. How tragic that he tied himself to a false happiness that ended up in his losing hope of any true happiness.

Just beautiful! I loved it. 10/10 for sure!

dumbledore - perfume

Author's Response: Thank you for your very kind review. People in general may not identify with Snape, but I’m fond of him. I agree that Narcissa is a rather flat character through most of the series, but she becomes more three-dimensional in the last books. We see that she is devoted to her child and family and that she will go to great lengths to protect them. My theory is that when Lucius was imprisoned and Draco inducted into the Death Eaters and placed at risk, her life was turned upside down. (Of course, it got worse, but that’s DH.)

This former Classics major is delighted that you liked the translation. Catullus wrote about that one love, rejection and obsession – Snape would have liked him. And I’m so glad you thought that scene worked. Although I didn’t come out and say so, it was one of my concerns.

As to Dumbledore and the perfume – I thought he’d be a man of sophistication and wide knowledge. He knows his knitting patterns, so he’d surely know his perfumes.